Fathers’ Fighting Words Don’t Stop Morales, Espadas

They sat on the dais at a Los Angeles news conference this week, each with his father at his side, to talk about tonight’s featherweight showdown in Las Vegas.

Yet, if those fathers had had their way, there would have been no news conference, no showdown, no fight of any kind.

Eric Morales and Guty Espadas will battle for the World Boxing Council featherweight title tonight at the MGM Grand Conference Center Grand Ballroom in a fight to be shown tape-delayed on HBO at 10:45 p.m.

Last February, Morales’ battle against Marco Antonio Barrera was considered one of the year’s best, a fast-paced 12-round match Morales narrowly won by decision. Based on that performance, the hard-punching, tough Morales is a 7-1 favorite tonight.

Both he and Espadas belong near the top of a talent-laden weight class that includes Barrera, Prince Naseem Hamed, Derrick Gainer and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Elite company. But when Morales and Espadas were kids, their fathers discouraged them from pursuing boxing careers, unable to see beyond the pain and hardship their sons would have to endure.

Both had first-hand knowledge.

MORALES’ FATHER

Jose Morales Damian fought as a flyweight in the 1970s. His son was born in the Tijuana building that housed the gym where Eric would grow up after putting on the gloves at age 6.

“I didn’t want him to be a boxer,” the senior Morales said through an interpreter. “When he was a kid, I closed down the gym for half a year, hoping he would forget about boxing. But he didn’t forget.

“So I put him in with the toughest guys I could find, hoping that would discourage him, but he kept beating them.

“Finally, I had to say, ‘I guess he is a boxer.’ ”

A still unbeaten boxer at 39-0 with 31 knockouts, the younger Morales knocked out Daniel Zaragoza in the 11th round of their 1997 fight to win the WBC super bantamweight title. Morales defended that title nine times, beating people such as Barrera, Junior Jones and Wayne McCullough.

After that, he gave up his 122-pound title and was poised to challenge Espadas, the WBC featherweight king, last September. When Espadas broke his collarbone in a sparring session, Morales defeated Kevin Kelley, Espadas’ replacement, on a seventh-round TKO to win the interim WBC crown.

Despite all the time he has spent in the ring, Morales still has satisfied his father’s desire to see him develop an alternative career in case boxing didn’t work out. Morales has become a qualified technician in the refrigeration business.

Don’t look for him to go into practice any time soon.

ESPADAS’ FATHER

When Espadas (33-2, 21) defeated Luisito Espinosa for the WBC title last April--the win determined by the judges’ scorecards after a head butt stopped the fight in the 11th round--it made boxing history.

Guty Espadas Sr. also was a world champion, having won the World Boxing Assn. flyweight title nearly three decades ago. According to the best available fight records, the Espadases are the first father and son to both hold world titles.

The son, however, didn’t get there because of much encouragement from his father.

“I always encouraged him,” said Guty Sr. through an interpreter, “to get a degree.”

Guty Jr. found time to do both, having earned an engineering degree from a Mexican university.

But like Morales, he doesn’t figure to be involved in a career outside the ring in the near future.

SOMEDAY, WILL PRINCE COME?

With Hamed and Barrera fighting April 7 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the winner against the winner of Morales-Espadas would be a natural pairing.

“I would like to fight Morales,” Hamed said. “I am fighting Barrera first because I think he won the Morales fight.”

But before the winner of Hamed-Barrera can be considered, the victor of tonight’s fight is obligated to fight South Korea’s Injin Chi, the WBC’s No. 1 featherweight contender, in June.

AT LAST

Three times, James Page and Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis have been scheduled to fight for the WBA welterweight crown.

The first time, their match, on the undercard of the heavyweight title fight between Evander Holyfield and John Ruiz last June, was a casualty when the entire card had to be postponed because of an injury suffered by Holyfield.

Page and Lewis again were on the card when Holyfield-Ruiz was rescheduled for last August.

But when it came time for the weigh-in, Page, dissatisfied with his purse and embroiled in personal problems, failed to show.

Said promoter Don King, “He’s just gone incognito for a minute.”

It was a lot more than a minute. Tonight, six months later, Page and Lewis will try it again.

Page (25-3, 19) was stripped of his title for his no-show after defending it three times so tonight’s battle against Lewis (19-0-1, 18)--if it indeed finally happens--will be for a vacant crown.

“I’d like to fight Shane Mosley or Oscar De La Hoya. Those are the big-money fights and you’re not going to stop me,” Page told Lewis at a Thursday news conference in Las Vegas.

THE WEIGHT IS OVER

Whether Page or Lewis emerges as a titleholder at 147 pounds, they might not find any of the big names there to oppose them.

De La Hoya already has announced that, after his March 24 fight against Arturo Gatti, he’s going up to 154 pounds.

Mosley has said he’d come up to 154 to fight Felix Trinidad Jr. That’s probably not going to happen because Trinidad is moving up to 160 on his way to 168, where he hopes to fight Roy Jones.

Fernando Vargas, already at 154, took umbrage at De La Hoya’s remark last week that he won’t fight Vargas because “he first has to prove himself.”

Responded Vargas, “I’m the biggest fight out there for De La Hoya at 154 pounds. Why would he not want to make the most money?”

The fact is, De La Hoya can make more by fighting Trinidad or Mosley.

Vargas should take his case to former HBO executive Lou DiBella, who agreed this week to become De La Hoya’s new matchmaker.